Homemade Laundry Soap

First published at, The Sitting Tree, this Thursday's tutorial illustrates how economical and easy (and fun) it is to mix up laundry soap by hand!

Fourteen days of camping and hiking in the rain yields A LOT of muddy clothes and wet wool pants. Nothing works better for cleaning dirt and stains out of the laundry like homemade laundry soap. Plus it's cheap and very eco~ friendly! We've tried all kinds but found that the powder version works the best for our family.

Ingredients::
1 bar of handmade soap (approx 2 C.)
1 C. Borax (deodorizes and acts as an alternative to color safe bleach)
1 C. Washing Soda (used as a natural stain remover and softener in hard water)

First we start by finely grating a bar of our handmade castile soap. We are in love with Patchouli~Vanilla. Yummm. Sweet and spicy laundry fresh off the line. Almost makes me excited to do a tub full in the morning!



Then we measure out the Borax and Washing Soda (Borax may irritate little fingers, so older kids or adults should probably measure out this part). Pour all the ingredients into a glass, air tight canister.



Seal up the lid, put on some dancin' music, and let the kids shake it all up...



We do all our laundry in the tub and use a quarter cup per half a tub full, so probably a few tablespoons for a washing machine. It works great in cold water and I assume it works for front loaders also, just use a little less. (If you have one of these fancy electric contraptions you know how it works!) This jar will last us about two weeks if I do a load every day and the total cost is about $2.


Elizabeth knits anywhere & everywhere, except while riding her bike (but only because she hasn't worked out how to do that yet). Her handmade soap and hand knit woolen longies can be found on Etsy at thesittingtree.